Bruins at Maple Leafs preview

The Game

Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand, who missed two games with an upper-body injury, will return to the lineup against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Air Canada Centre on Friday, in the first half of home-and-home back-to-back games.

Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews is day-to-day with an upper-body injury and will miss his second straight game.

The Bruins are 2-2-2 in their past six games. The Maple Leafs look to extend their winning streak to three games; they are 3-5-0 in their past eight after beginning the season 7-2-0.

Players to watch

Bruins forward David Pastrnak is on a three-game point streak and has eight points (three goals, five assists) in his past five games. He leads the Bruins with 16 points (nine goals, seven assists) in 14 games.

Maple Leafs forward Connor Brown has five points (four goals, one assist) in his past five games. He had a goal and had an assist in Toronto's 4-2 win against the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday.

They said it

"It's just nice to be back here with the guys. I'm looking forward to the game tonight. It's always fun to play in Toronto. It's a fun matchup, they have a very good team over there. I'm feeling good and excited to get back to playing." -- Bruins forward Brad Marchand

"It's cool, I thought it was peculiar when I saw it on the schedule but it's an opportunity to measure yourself against the same team both nights. It's going to be a battle of wills towards who can exert the way they want to play. It's very difficult to beat a team twice. It's a mock playoff format where you get the same group back to back, so it will be fun." -- Maple Leafs defenseman Connor Carrick on playing home-and-home back-to-back games against the Bruins

Status report

Acciari will be in the lineup for the first time since sustaining a broken finger in the Bruins 4-3 win against the Nashville Predators in their season-opener on Oct 5. Vatrano is expected to be a healthy scratch.

Stat pack

Krug has seven points (two goals, five assists) in a five-game point streak. … Bergeron has six points (two goals, four assists) in his past five games. … Kadri has three goals in his past two games.